Caribbean Briefs 05-09-13

BARBADOS IRS seeks data MIAMI – The U.S. government has obtained a court order to collect the names of taxpayers who had an account with CIBC FirstCaribbean International Bank over an eight-year period ending Dec. 31 without disclosing it to the IRS.

The order was obtained from a judge after an IRS revenue agent reviewed information from 129 people who voluntarily came forward to disclose offshore accounts and decided further scrutiny of FirstCaribbean was warranted. It was a first for a Caribbean bank. CIBC FirstCaribbean, based in Barbados, has 100 branches in 17 countries in the Caribbean, about 3,400 employees and more than $11.5 billion in assets, according to the company’s 2012 annual report. It does not have any branches in the United States but it has what’s known as a correspondent account with Wells Fargo that allowed U.S. citizens to do business with the bank.

DOMINICAN REPUBLICDNA test for Camano SANTO DOMINGO – The authorities dug up the grave of Col. Francisco Alberto Caamano Deno, one of the country’s national heroes, to make sure the remains are his before he is re-buried in the national cemetery. Caamano, who was killed by government troops in 1973, belonged to a faction seeking to restore President Juan Bosch, who was seen as an ally of communist Cuba and ousted in a U.S.-backed coup. He briefly led the country until a U.S. nvasion in April 1965, bringing on a civil war. Dominicans embraced Bosch and Caamano as heroes after years of dictatorship.

HAITI Lavalas returning PORT-AU-PRINCE – Former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide is trying to rebuild his Lavalas Family political party as the nation prepares for legislative and local elections, according to Richard Morse, manager of the famed Hotel Oloffson. He said he has met with Aristide three times in two weeks to discuss the possibility of his wife, Lunise Exume Morse, running under Aristide’s party as a senatorial candidate in a vote that’s supposed to be held before year’s end.

Doctor, wife relocating BRENTWOOD, Tenn. – David Vanderpool and his wife, Laurie, of Brentwood, Tenn., are boxing up their belongings and either giving them away or selling them off as they prepare to move to Haiti for full-time mission work. The Tennessean newspaper reported that the couple plans to serve the medical, educational and spiritual needs of Haitians. They are closing LaveMD, a practice that does aesthetic treatments such as fixing varicose veins and liposuction, and were set to close on the sale of their home Friday. “Here we are, the most affluent country and we’re obese,’’ Vanderpool said. “Go two hours off our border and 80 percent of the children don’t get enough food.”